


Subject NV01- Part ONE

by killerofcanon



Series: Subject NV01 [1]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: AU, Angst, Cecil Has Tentacles, Cecil is a tentacle monster, Fluff, M/M, No Porn, Rebellion, Strexcorp, Tentacles, but not in a sexy way, just plot, or is he a monster...?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-21
Packaged: 2018-08-08 17:39:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7767145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killerofcanon/pseuds/killerofcanon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos is working on a top-secret government project to study a creature vaguely described to him as Subject NV01. Is the creature more than the murderous beast everyone tells him it is?</p><p>The only stray from canon here is a) Cecil's (and others!) tentacles, Strex doesn't come to Night Vale for the same reasons, and Carlos meets Cecil under very different circumstances. This isn't a super far-fetched story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Day on the Job

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so if you read this story before, I want you to know- I rewrote some things. I added some things. I made it a lot better. Someone requested a sequel, which reminded me that this story existed. This is Subject NV01 Part One. This may be misleading, but Part Two is not the sequel. I'm taking the original, and splitting it into two stories. If I do follow up with another, it'll be Subject NV01 Part Three. If you already read this, it's not the exact same, so you should read it again. I'm not just saying that to get hits. It's about 4,000 words longer. So, in closing, re-read this one, then re-read part two. I'm really happy about the changes I made. Some of the final chapters of what is now Part Two I wrote in several hours and then immediately uploaded in the middle of the night, so they weren't that great. If this is your first time coming across this story, I hope you like it! It was really fun to write. Both times. :)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carlos makes some acquaintances at his new job.

Carlos arrived at the tall, dark building with windows on all levels except the top one exactly on time. The company was called “Strexcorp”. Carlos had never heard it before. The instructions of the job offer were very precise. He was to tell his family he was taking a job in South Korea, teaching STEM subjects to children in local orphanages for an indefinite amount of time, when in reality he was only an hour’s drive from where his parents lived, and his task was much less noble. Carlos didn’t actually tell them anything, because hearing from him for the first time in years just to say he was leaving the country would likely have just concerned them more than necessary.  
Carlos had never grown up thinking it would be cool to be a scientist for illegal and often inhumane projects, and abandoning the family he cared so much for. As a kid he had actually dreamed of being a marine biologist and saving wounded dolphins, octopi and sea turtles. Then one friend one time said he had work, but it was “shady”, and Carlos had been too poor and too desperate to uphold his morals. Now, years later, he still didn’t have much of a choice but to take whatever questionable jobs were graciously tossed his way. Very few people left the business he was in.  
Carlos was always known for being on time. Punctuality meant predictability, and if it was predictable, it was easy to understand. Half of science was predicting what would happen. He walked into the building in typical work clothing. He was issued a black lab coat and an ID badge with clearance levels 1, 2, and 15. There were fifteen floors on the building, so Carlos deduced that the numbers were the floors he was permitted to be on. He judged by the way that the top floor had no windows that were visible from outside that floor 15 was going to be his primary work environment. A look at the sign informed him that floor 1 held a cafeteria, the front desk, and several offices that did not matter to him. Floor 2 was his bosses’ offices, his subordinates’ offices, and his office. He was fine with never knowing what was on the other floors. Based on his task, he assumed he didn’t want to know.  
He went up to floor 2 to meet with the other people working on his team. He found that he had two people above him on the corporate ladder that he was actually allowed to know about, Lauren and Kevin. They looked almost exactly alike, both with reddish-brown hair and eyes the color of uncut diamonds that cut through Carlos’s soul. He was uncomfortable looking at them, but he assumed that meant they were in the right line of work. He realized quickly by talking to them that Kevin was the optimist of the pair, and Lauren was more of a realist. He saw on their office doors the same last name. He would assume spouses, but since they looked as close to identical as opposite-sex people can be, he presumed siblings.  
“I assume you read all of the information distributed to you on Subject NV01?” Lauren asked him after she outlined the little things you need to know for any job, especially the legal ones.  
“Yes, but I still don’t feel very adequately informed.” Carlos expressed his concern. “The file had a blurry picture that really just looked like a flash of blue light coming from a corner, and several copies of death certificates of people the subject has killed. Has he really killed that many scientists?”  
“Dr. Científico, we do not use gender pronouns when discussing the Subject, because we feel it humanizes NV01. The Subject has, in fact, slaughtered that many scientists, and maimed many more. The file was very thorough. Anything else you need to know will come straight from either me or Kevin.” Lauren explained sternly.  
“Oh, my apologies. I suppose what I’m the most concerned about is, what is my job in relation to Subject NV01?” Carlos asked, trying his best to sound professional and intelligent. They were withholding what seemed to be vital details, even more than was customary in other jobs Carlos took.  
“Eventually, we would like you to take measurements and do biological studies on the Subject’s anatomy and biology, but you see, Doctor… NV01 does not respond well to observation.” Kevin elaborated pleasantly.  
“What do you mean?”  
“You will need to feed the Subject, speak to it, whatever it takes to gain its trust before it will allow you to closely observe it.” He paused. “Also, if you could get a solid picture of the subject while it is in it’s threatening form, that would be excellent. Just in case you’re not successful. But I’m sure you will be!”  
“Threatening form?” Carlos questioned. What had he gotten himself into this time?  
“It’s best if you see that aspect of the Subject for yourself.” He smiled worryingly. Carlos requested if he could go up and feed or even meet the Subject right then, and they said that’d be a great idea. If the Subject didn’t immediately slaughter him when he went up there, then he could come down later and meet the assistants he was welcome to use. They handed him a giant chunk of meat on a bone, like what you would see in a cartoon. Carlos didn’t have the guts to ask what animal it was from. The risk involved in this position was mildly concerning, since it didn’t seem like anyone expected him to come down that elevator alive, but he didn’t have anything left to lose. He headed up to floor 15 and took a deep breath before stepping out of the elevator. There was a hallway with no doors except one at the very end of the hall. Carlos thought this was an exceptional waste of space, but he figured no one wanted anything to do with the floor that the Subject was on. He used his security badge clipped to his coat to unlock the door. “Carlos Científico” the door read out loud before the light changed to green and Carlos turned the handle. The room had a large tank on one side of the room that connected to what looked like it could be a zoo habitat for sea lions. The tank’s sides, separated by a glass wall (the entire habitat was glass, but about 2 feet thick, and reinforced) came up to the ceiling, which was about twelve feet tall. The entire left half was filled to the ceiling with water. The right half had a tan, flat rock that took up most of the floor, with a little bit of water at the bottom. It looked like the Subject was moved between the two for different methods of studying. On the side of the right half was a very reinforced metal door that opened into hallway that revealed another very reinforced door to prevent the thing from getting out.  
Carlos had walked into this with very little description of what he would be managing. He was told it was semiaquatic, and could breathe underwater and on land. He was told its central body was about six and a half feet tall/long, depending on how you looked at it. He was also told there were tentacles, but not how many or how large. He was not told that other than the tentacles and some skin discoloration, Subject NV01 appeared… human. Carlos was expecting a monster. This… thing… had killed a lot of people. It was a monster. But… it didn’t look like one. Carlos had never been one to take other people’s descriptions as fact before getting to know someone himself, but how could the subject look so normal, and be so evil?  
The subject was facing away from Carlos on the rock side. Its tentacles lied flat out on the rocks next to it. Three on each side of his back, each one thicker at the base than its neck. It had dry, scraggly looking light brown hair. The dryness led Carlos to believe it had been on the land side for a while. When Carlos shut the door behind him, the Subject became alert, throwing its six tentacles around its body, shielding itself from prying eyes. Carlos approached the glass. He saw that the Subject was quivering. Carlos imagined it needed water or sunlight to maintain its preferred body heat. He wondered if NV01 was warm or cold-blooded. He hypothesized that it was warm-blooded, but further observation was needed.  
Carlos walked over to the two-door system of getting in. He got through the first door and stayed there a moment. The Subject, nearly encased by its thick tentacles, used the two on either side of its lower back to move its body to the opposite side, near the glass that separated the water half. Carlos took this as an invitation to open the second door, though it most certainly was not intended as one. He walked in and closed the door behind him. The door only opened again if Carlos said his name out loud, and he had been informed that the Subject was non-verbal in all sorts.  
“Hello.” Carlos greeted. He felt incredibly nervous, because this thing had a hundred different ways to kill him and was likely only hesitating to decide which one, and they both knew it. “I’m Dr. Científico.” He gulped. “Or, you know, just Carlos. I’m not here to be antagonistic.” Carlos just prayed to a smiling god that his tone of voice came across as unthreatening enough. “I just came to give you some food.”  
The Subject turned its head at this, just enough to look. Carlos set the meat down on the ground equidistance between them. NV01 rotated around using the bottom two tentacles to face Carlos, and he got a good look. The Subject had a human face, and human torso, and human legs. Even human arms. That was ten limbs total. The subject glared at the meat, but Carlos’s eyes were trained on the Subject. He- it, Carlos scolded himself- was objectively, attractive. Symmetrical face, large eyes, a strong jaw… the tentacles and murderous reputation were certainly off putting, but Carlos was not so easily deterred by a creature of nature, no matter how freakish. That wasn’t to say that he was attracted to the Subject, only that he was slightly entranced. The tentacles were dark, dark blue. More like black, but with glimmers of blue and purple in the light. Carlos wasn’t close enough to see its eyes. He wondered why it wasn’t going for the food.  
Then, it did. The Subject reached out with one tentacle and brought the slab of meat into its lap. Carlos noticed that no matter what it did, it always kept two tentacles, the middle ones, over its crotch area. It seemed to have human ideals of modesty. Carlos wondered if that meant it had human genitalia. Its sex was listed as male on the documents, though gender pronouns were strictly discouraged, so… another hypothesis to determine. Its torso was not exceptionally muscular, but it had broad shoulders. All of its ribs were visible, even from ten feet away. The subject held up the meat, and Carlos thought he was going to get to watch it feed, when it brought down the meat like a hammer and slammed Carlos against the back wall of the tank. He hit his head hard against the thick glass. Carlos felt dizzy, and he struggled to stand back up. He remained calm, though he was seeing stars, and was very concerned that he was concussed.  
“Uhhnn,” Carlos groaned, rubbing his head for a sign of a protrusion. He seemed fine, physically speaking. “Alright. I understand you don’t like me or my kind, but I’m only trying to help.”  
The Subject then scowled at Carlos, and used what seemed like teeth on the bottom of a tentacle to bite off a tiny piece of the meat, like a taste. It held the piece up to its mouth, sniffed it, and nibbled a bit off with its normal-looking mouth like it was the biggest piece it could stand. Carlos didn’t understand. The creature wasn’t eating it. Maybe it just wasn’t eating out of rebellion for being trapped. That’s probably it, and also explained the very visible ribs. Carlos walked over to the door, clearly enunciated his name into it, and left the tank without incident.  
“I’ll be back later today to bring you another.” He told it through the glass. He wasn’t sure if the glass was soundproof, but if it was, at least NV01 saw him speaking.  
Carlos went down the elevator to floor 2. Everyone was having a conference room meeting. When he walked in, they all looked surprised.  
“Dr. Científico? You fed Subject NV01?” Kevin gaped.  
“I did. It didn’t give me much trouble.” He felt a warm liquid drip down his forehead. Carlos touched it, and his fingers came back red. He didn’t even notice the blood the first time he checked. Lauren rushed to the office and came back with a clump of tissues.  
“You didn’t even take the discipline button.” She commented, impressed.  
“No one told me there was a discipline button.” Carlos replied.  
“Whoops,” She shrugged, not sounded very apologetic.  
In the conference room, all the assistants who were allowed to be in there, Lauren and Kevin, and two other guys who looked the same age as Carlos sat around the table. The two other guys were introduced to him as Steve and John, who had only been there for a week before Carlos arrived. Steve had dark skin and short, kept hair. He wore a pale green button down under his black lab coat. John had lighter hair, and more medium skin. Steve gave Carlos a weak smile, but John just nodded when they were introduced. Carlos was told that they had the same job as him, to feed and gain the trust of NV01. He supposed they had three of them because the likelihood of at least one of them being successful was more appealing. Neither John nor Steve had been up to feed NV01 yet, though. It led Carlos to believe that neither of them ever planned on doing so. The meeting was a discussion on what the next steps to be taken were. He found out the discipline button is like a panic button, and if pressed, the rocks and walls become electrified. It was intended to make the creature leave them alone, and since they’re required to wear rubber sole shoes, it wouldn’t affect them. Carlos grumbled that such a device would have been nice to have while he was literally in the cage with it, though he knew he wouldn’t have used it unless his life was directly at stake.  
“Today’s meeting is to be a brainstorming session. Everyone, just throw out your ideas on how we can get this thing to do what we want and figure out why it is the way it is.” Lauren informed.  
“Why don’t we just drug it?” Steve asked. “A simple tranquilizer could be less painful for everyone involved.”  
“Steve, we’ve tried to pump that thing upstairs full of so many chemicals, its bloodstream looks like the goddamn periodic table.” Lauren replied stoically, not in a rude way. Steve nodded.  
“Why do we even need it alive?” John spoke up.  
“We need to monitor its patterns and such while it is alive. It is worth far more to us scientifically and financially if whatever it uses to breathe still does exactly that.” Kevin smiled.  
“Is there another of the same kind anywhere? Possibly a more willing participant?” Steve offered. Kevin and Lauren shared a glance.  
“This is the only creature of its kind we know of.” They agreed firmly.  
“I think I can get it. Creatures get attached to what feeds them, so if the same person feeds it for every meal and shares a bond with it, then it will feel comfortable with them.” Carlos explained.  
“What, so who do you suggest puts their life at risk, pretty boy?” John smirked. Carlos was confused by the “pretty boy” comment.  
“Me. I thought that was obvious. I want to do it.”  
“Dr. Científico, you must remain professional. The Subject is just that, a subject. You cannot think it will want to be your friend no matter how much you feed it and speak to it. NV01 doesn’t even have any language skills.” Lauren warned.  
“I understand. I simply hypothesize that repetition and soothing tones of voice could relax NV01, and once it is relaxed, I can take measurements and the like without it being hostile.” Carlos explained. Lauren and Kevin nodded. And like that, Carlos was the only one with actual work to do until he could get some data for the others to analyze. Eventually it came time to feed NV01 again, and Lauren gave him the discipline button. Carlos thanked her, but still did not plan on using it unless he was seconds from death. The Subject would not trust him out of fear of being shocked.  
Carlos went back to floor 15 and stood in front of the glass. The Subject was sitting in the same place as before, but now facing the water side with its forehead against the glass and its knees pulled up to its chest. Carlos stood as close as he could to it through the glass, holding the meat. If the Subject would open its eyes, Carlos would have been about to see what color they were. The Subject had light brown eyelashes and thick, furry brows. It had coral colored lips and accented cheekbones. Carlos attributed the cheekbones to both whatever was making its ribs show, and likely genetics. Carlos admired that no matter how cruel the creature was, it was still a magnificent and beautiful being of nature. Carlos could feel its eyes on him when he turned around and set the discipline button on the floor. He went through the 2-door process and walked into the tank. NV01 turned around, still covering its crotch, and used the top right tentacle to point at the button through the glass. Carlos was amazed that it had abilities beyond eating and violence. The creature pointed again more vigorously.  
“That button is to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you.” Carlos stated calmly, hoping his tone would affect how he was perceived. Somehow, he felt that NV01 understood what he was saying. He wondered just how complex NV01’s communication skills actually were, and if he was the first person to ever learn that those skills existed.  
Carlos put the meat between them again, just like before, only this time he sat down on the rock. “I decided you might want some company while you ate this time.”  
The Subject glared at him warily, but not angrily. Carlos was encouraged. He didn’t know if whatever species NV01 was was a social one, but it couldn’t hurt to try. He realized immediately after he had the thought that it certainly could hurt to try, since this thing could kill him if he made any move it didn’t like, but still. Carlos felt he had nothing to lose.  
“Like I said, I’m Carlos. Feeding you is my new job. I’m thirty-four years old. I have a nice mother, though not nice enough to support me after I got out of college, and a younger sister. She’s twelve now, but I haven’t seen her in about three years. She’s a lot younger than me, because we have different dads. My dad died when I was a kid. My mom was only sixteen when she had me.” It was strange, but at the mention of his twelve year old sister, NV01 looked up with intrigue, though not exactly making eye contact. Carlos couldn’t imagine why. The subject still hadn’t taken the meat.  
“I like science a lot. When I was little, I wanted to study ocean creatures. Like dolphins, turtles, octopi.” Carlos chuckled lightly. “Maybe even like yourself.” NV01 recoiled at that last part. “You don’t want to be studied?” The creature took the meat and began nibbling on it.  
“Do you understand me at all?” Carlos asked, not expecting a concrete answer.  
The Subject stopped looking at the meat and slowly looked up and met Carlos’s eyes for the first time. Something like a shock went up Carlos’s spine as their eyes clicked together. The experience caught Carlos completely off guard; he felt magnetically connected to the pupils across from him. The whole action was so sentient, so human, that Carlos lost all train of thought.It extended out that middle-right tentacle towards him and laid it out by Carlos’s feet.  
“You’re trying to communicate.” It wasn’t a question. “Can I… can I touch you?” The creature did nothing. Carlos so-so-delicately, barely even grazed the tip of the tentacle with his hand, but NV01 jerked it away and whacked Carlos upside the head with it yet again making him see stars, but not as badly as the first offense. “Okay. I deserved that. Moving too fast.” He said once he recovered. “I know its a lot to assume that you actually understand my words, but I’m going with- nothing means no, and moving means yes.” NV01 tapped Carlos’s foot with the tentacle. Carlos’s heart raced. He had-possibly- established communication with the non-verbal subject. The Subject continued to eat in tiny bites. It took him about two hours to eat the entire thing. Carlos just continued to chatter away about his life, and NV01 seemed to listen.  
“I haven’t stayed in one place for a long time. I’ve done jobs that last a couple of months, then moved to the next city.” He paused.  
The Subject wasn’t looking at him anymore, just focusing on slowly, nibble by nibble, eliminating the meat.  
“This is the closest I’ve been to home in a while. Home, meaning, where I grew up, and where my mother and sister live.” A deep breath from Carlos. “I just left one day. I wrote some lame note, about how I needed to find myself, but that wasn’t why I left.” Carlos didn’t understand why he was pouring out his soul to this creature that probably understood no more than tones and body language, but he didn’t stop. It felt like he was establishing trust by just sitting, unarmed, and almost entirely unafraid.  
There was a whirring sound from the door that lead out to the elevator, and in came John and Steve.  
“Oh, Dr. Científico, we were sure you were dead.” Steve sighed with relief.  
“Please, call me Carlos.” Carlos insisted.  
“Científico, how are you supposed to press the discipline button if you’re sitting on the rock?” John said like it was obvious. Carlos supposed it was obvious, and he knew he was breaking protocol, but he didn’t care. Risks were necessary for the sake of scientific discovery.  
“I didn’t need it.” Carlos motioned for the button, still on the floor in front of the tank.  
“Doctor, this is grossly irresponsible. You are in an enclosed space with a dangerous and hostile creature. Do you really think this company needs any more deaths drawing attention to them?” John scolded.  
“John, do I look like I’m in danger?” Carlos casually waved. John gaped like, yes, he did, but Carlos was fine. Carlos figured the best way to earn the trust of NV01 was to pretend to trust him first, even if he was absolutely terrified. Nonetheless, he left the tank for the last time of the day and walked back to the elevator with Steve and John. We all went to floor 2 and sat in the conference room, just to hang out until work got out not too much later.  
“So, what would you guys do if it wasn’t all this?” Carlos motioned to indicate all this. Befriending the two people who shared a similar job couldn’t be the worst thing. If he was going to be in the same place long enough to unlock all the mysterious of Subject NV01, it would be nice to talk to someone who could actually talk back.  
“I’d do something in agriculture. That life always appealed to me.” John sighed. Carlos could only imagine the tragic reasons he’s doing this instead.  
“I dunno,” Steve grumbled. “Probably teach high school, settle down and start a family. I’ve always liked kids.” Carlos found that surprising. Something about Steve seemed so kind, which made it hard to believe he ended up in a place like this. Carlos passively wished the cards could’ve lined up the right way so that Steve would have gotten to teach.  
The lot of them just chatted about work and simple stuff colleagues talk about before Kevin and Lauren came in.  
“How was the second feeding?” Kevin asked cheerfully. Carlos was absently doodling a tentacle in his scientific notes.  
“It was great.” Carlos smiled back. “No complications whatsoever.” Carlos looked at John. If John wanted to tell their bosses that Carlos didn't bring the discipline button into the tank and possibly get him into trouble, he wasn’t going to do it right then.  
Eventually the day finished up. Carlos was just hanging up his black lab coat when Steve tapped him on the shoulder.  
“Hey, do you want to go grab a beer?” He asked with a genuine smile.  
“Yeah. That sounds great.” Carlos grinned back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Carlos's last name is scientist in spanish. If you couldn't tell. That's really all i have to say besides thanks for reading!


	2. Second Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carlos discovers some shocking things about Subject NV01.

When Carlos woke up, his head was pounding. He felt like he had drank himself dead the night before, but he and Steve had only had two beers each, and he had a strict policy against getting blackout drunk. He got out of bed and went to inspect himself in the mirror. He had a deep red slash across the side of his face, with small round indents in dual straight lines. NV01 had left a serious mark on him. Carlos made a mental note to write down that part of the tentacles were sharp in his scientific notes. He got up and put a bag of frozen vegetables over the left side of his face, and sat down on his couch. He had time to lounge around before he needed to get ready for work, so he just pondered. Any other day he would have just popped on the TV, but he had better things to do. He thought back to his dreams. He had dreams of a dark, multi-limbed figure, but they had not been nightmares. His dreams just left him even more curious.   
He needed to get NV01 to trust him, and he was on the right path to doing it. His face stung infinitely worse than it had the day before. In fact, he was amazed that the mark hadn’t shown up until sometime during the night. It even looked infected, or poisoned. If he could get some of the ooze coming out of it by his eye, maybe he could hand it off to be studied. Carlos grabbed a test tube and a pipette, trying to transfer the liquid into the tube. He squinted, and scrunching his face made a lot more squeeze out. He had a good sample size. He closed up the tube and made attempts to disinfect the wound with anything he could find lying around. He hadn’t had time to buy a quality first aid kit for his new place, and even though the office had one, he didn’t want to expose his screwed up face to the elements without cleaning it some.   
He settled on a rag and some rubbing alcohol. Carlos decided to just go for it right on the target to ensure he was staving off infection, and he bit his lip so hard it drew blood trying to hold back a scream. It stung like a puta, but he was tough. He couldn’t wrap it or anything without having to cover his eye and be completely overdramatic about it, so he let it breathe.   
After his wound had been sort of taken care of, he put on a light blue button down and black slacks. People had told him that pastels looked good with his complexion. He combed out his hair, brushed his teeth, the usual stuff you do to get ready for work before taking a deep breath and heading out the door.  
He wasn’t the first guy there, but he wasn’t the last either. Steve wasn’t there, but John sat at his desk in the open room, tapping away at his computer.   
“John. I have something for you to do some experiments on.” Carlos held out the test tube. John looked up lazily.  
“Shit!” He jumped back. “That sucker got you good, Carlos.”   
“Yeah, I know.” John gave him an “I told you so” look. His wound was still throbbing but he felt confident in his abilities to ignore pain. Just then, Lauren and Kevin came up behind John. Carlos wondered why he never saw just one of them.  
“Oh, Dr. Científico, how did that happen?” Kevin gasped.  
“NV01 smacked me at the end of the day yesterday.” Carlos explained.  
“Why didn’t you use the discipline button?” Lauren asked suspiciously.   
“I, uh, I didn’t get a chance. It all happened so fast, you know. That, uh, that thing has serious speed.” He lied semi-smoothly. John started typing back on his computer, clearly not interested in getting Carlos in trouble. If Carlos got fired, John might be the next one sent up there to face the beast. “Uh, anyway. I gave John a sample of some kind of liquid that was oozing out of my face this morning, so we can see if the Subject has some kind of venom in its system.”   
“Fascinating. Why aren’t you analyzing it, Doctor?” Kevin asked.   
“Oh, I was going to go up and feed NV01 and see if it can get a little more comfortable with me.”  
“Again? You just fed it last night.” Lauren remarked.  
“Well, yes, but that was approximately seventeen hours ago.” Carlos defended.  
“Hm. No one’s ever bothered to feed it when they first came into work.” Kevin shrugged, smiling.  
“Maybe that’s why its ribs are so prominent. The creature seems to be dramatically malnourished.” Carlos hypothesized.  
“Keeping it hungry keeps it weaker. But, hey, you’re the only person ever to have been smacked and not killed, so if you want to risk strengthening it, I suppose we can trust your judgement.” Lauren replied stoically. The air went cool.  
“If you are going up there,” Kevin smiled. “I should come with you. You need to learn how to transfer it out of the left tank and into the right one.” Carlos nodded, and they headed up together. While he knew he couldn’t make as much progress with someone tagging along, Carlos had been wanting to see how the Subject reacted differently when submerged in water.   
When they got into the room, NV01 was lying in the fetal position with its back to them, tentacles lying slack. It was unmoving, and Carlos felt a pang of concern for his semi-aquatic acquaintance.   
“Is h- is it dead?” Carlos caught himself.  
“I doubt it. Perhaps this is how it sleeps.” Kevin grinned. Carlos didn’t understand why he was grinning so much.  
“Alright. How do we get it into the side with the water?” Carlos eyed the Subject, still not convinced of its well being. He wondered for a moment why he cared so much, but chalked it up to scientific curiosity.  
“The water on the right side drains out when you press the green button.” Kevin showed him a remote with a blue, a green, a white, and a yellow button. “Then, the yellow button electrifies the whole left side, and the blue electrifies the whole right side, depending on which side you want it to go on. Or, you can just press both and have some fun.” Kevin giggled. Carlos was disturbed, but he hoped Kevin was kidding. He couldn’t possibly take joy in hurting it, right? He was a professional. Kevin pointedly pressed the green button, and the water on the right side drained. Then he pressed the white button, and the glass in a long oval shape swung out like a door, bridging the two sides. Carlos winced as Kevin pressed the yellow button and NV01 shook like it was having a seizure and leaped through to the other side. Kevin let go of the yellow button, pressed the white one again to close the glass, and pressed the green button again, filling the tank up with water. The Subject kept the middle two tentacles covering its crotch, and used the other four to float in the middle of the tank, facing them.   
“Here you go.” Kevin handed Carlos the remote. “I’ll be going back down now. Have fun!”   
Carlos sat down in front of the glass and began writing notes on the Subject’s appearance. His idea of fun in the office was very different from Kevin’s. He took out a camera and looked at NV01 closely.   
“Look. I know you don’t like having your picture taken, but it’d be great if you could let me photograph you.” NV01 ignored him and got right up against the glass, only the two feet of reinforced glass separating them. Carlos could see the Subject’s eyes clearly. They were the same black-ish color with iridescent highlights as his tentacles. Carlos gazed into them, and he felt something strange. It was almost like… he wasn’t sure. It felt like looking into, not the eyes of a wounded animal, but the eyes of a person. A tragic person. No, not tragic. Was that… remorse in its eyes? The Subject pointed his tentacle at the left side of Carlos’s face, the injured part. It clicked in Carlos’s mind.  
“Yeah, this is what happened after you hit me yesterday.” Carlos said factually. “It’s fine.” Carlos didn’t understand why he was trying to spare NV01’s feelings. The thing smacked him right in the face.   
“Would you mind if I took a picture of you?” NV01 broke their eye contact and glared at the floor. The eye contact was still as captivating as the first time, even more so when Carlos could see every fleck of color in those mysterious irises. “I’m sorry he shocked you.” The Subject looked back up into Carlos’s eyes. Carlos could swear it was like it was asking, are you really? “Yeah. I really am. As long as you’re not about to kill me, I’m not going to shock you.” The creature blinked at him, twice. “In fact, I think you would move tanks if I just asked you to. I think you understand me fine.” The Subject blinked at him again, and Carlos began to doubt. What if he was just imagining all of the communication? What if NV01 was just an animal that happened to look sort of human? Was Carlos endangering his life for nothing? Had he lost his mind after living in solitude for so long?   
“Am I crazy for thinking that you’re more human than creature?” Carlos whispered. He figured there was no way NV01 would be able to hear him whisper through the thick glass, but NV01 smiled. He smiled. A flicker of happiness danced across his- its- face. Carlos’s heart softened a little. Its teeth were normal, human-like teeth. They almost looked round. No, they did look round. They definitely did not look like the kind of teeth a carnivorous beast would have. Teeth less fierce than human teeth, even. Carlos was confused.   
“How could you possibly kill anything with those teeth? Or even chew meat?” Carlos pondered aloud. The creature’s eyes lit up, like he had been waiting his entire life for someone to say that. Two of his right tentacles twisted together in what Carlos thought appeared like excitement. Carlos gazed down at the hunk of animal by his feet. Suddenly Carlos understood why NV01 had to pull off the tiniest bites of meat just to eat it. He wasn’t starving himself in protest, he just wasn’t capable of properly digesting meat. NV01 was not a carnivorous, or even omnivorous species.   
“You don’t eat meat.” Carlos gaped. The Subject twirled more of his tentacles together as a sign of glee, still covering his genitals. “If you move over to the other side, I can give you something else.” Carlos offered. The Subject sat down at the bottom of the tank where it knew the door would open up. Carlos drained the tank, opened the door, and NV01 leaped back to the other side. His body was still glistening with the water, and his hair was wet and falling in different parts of his face. Its, Carlos scolded himself. It’s still a monster that killed more people than Carlos had in his family, and considering Carlos was hispanic, that was saying a lot.   
Carlos opened his lunch bag that he brought up with him. He took out a bag of celery. Carlos knew it wouldn’t be close to enough calories to be an effective meal for such a creature, but it would be something. Carlos opened the doors and went into the tank with the Subject. He held the celery sticks out in his hand. Carlos was assuming that NV01 wouldn’t harm him while he was holding food, which he realized was not a safe assumption at all, ut also realized it was too late to back out. NV01 used its tentacles to move closer to Carlos, and he wondered if NV01’s arms and legs even worked. They weren’t as close as they had been through the glass, but closer than they had ever been without anything but air between them. It was about four feet, and Carlos was shaking. NV01 extended a single tentacle to Carlos, suctioned the sticks to the pads of its tentacle, and curled around them. The tiniest bit of touch between their limbs left Carlos speechless. The Subject took the celery sticks in its human hands and stared at them like they were precious jewels. It inhaled the aroma like it was intoxicating before devouring all of them in rapid succession. Carlos actually thought it was kind of cute to watch it eat. It ate like a person, munching on the sticks, holding them close to its mouth with its hands… only more hungrily, which was understandable.   
“I’ll see what I can do about getting your food changed.” Carlos promised. “What did you eat before you came here, in your home? Where did you even come from?” NV01 looked up at Carlos with saucer-like eyes. Carlos saw nothing but despair in those deep colored eyes. All of a sudden, he was overcome by pity for this creature. It had been taken from its home, clearly somewhere it was attached to, and fed food it was repulsed by for who knows how long, electrocuted frequently, and generally treated awfully. It opened its mouth. Carlos was very confused by the way it did that, because it looked like… it looked like NV01 was trying to speak, but just couldn’t enunciate the words. Carlos wondered if it was going to make some kind of grunting noise, the way an animal would. Finally, a grumbling came from its throat.   
“Nigh… vay…” It whispered. There was no real voice, just air that was fashioned into sounds. Carlos didn’t know what “Nigh Vay” meant, but he assumed it was where the creature came from. Carlos was taken aback by the creature’s ability to communicate.  
“You can speak?” Carlos whispered back incredulously. The creature just looked at him with tortured eyes. NV01 vigorously shook its head and looked at Carlos with impactful feeling in its expression.  
“What did they do to you?” Carlos said so softly it was just air breezing out of his lips. NV01’s eyes watered, and tears dripped down its cheeks. It was in that moment that Carlos realized this was not a creature as much as it was a person. And he deserved to be called a he.   
“I have to tell them. They’ll be amazed. You can talk! You’re-” Carlos was stopped short when the creature lurched forward on his lower tentacles and grabbed Carlos with the top ones, holding him firmly around the waist a few feet off the ground. Carlos was shocked to feel his hands on Carlos’s shoulders. Carlos looked and saw NV01’s knuckles turning white, gripping Carlos so hard. But the tentacles were not squeezing him at all. It was desperate, but almost… gentle.   
“N-n-n… n-no.” He whisped. “Y-y-you-ou can-n-n’t t-t-tell… th-th-them-m.” Carlos trembled with paralyzing fear, but then he realized this wasn’t an attack. This was a plea.   
“Why?” Carlos wheezed out. NV01 looked like he was struggling greatly.  
“Th-th-they’ll-ll k-k-k-” He struggled to properly make a “k” sound, “-il-ill h-her.” His eyes watered more and nearly poured tears. Carlos could see so many things that NV01 did not have the capabilities to enunciate. But most prominently, he saw… regret. Carlos knew NV01 was regretting saying anything to Carlos, and though Carlos wasn’t totally sure what NV01 was saying, he knew it wasn’t safe for anyone else to know about this. Carlos wasn’t going to give him a reason to regret it. He would earn his trust.  
“Kill? Kill who?” Carlos pieced together what he was trying to say. Just then, with expert timing, Lauren came through the main door.  
“Doctor, I just came to see how you-” She dropped her clipboard when she looked up and saw the scene in front of her. She rapidly took a remote out of her pocket and slammed her hand on the button. Carlos could see sizzles coming off the glass as NV01 shuddered violently, releasing Carlos and collapsing to the ground. Discipline button. Carlos quickly exited the tank.   
“Dr. Científico, I’m so glad you’re alright!” She exclaimed, inspecting him for serious wounds. Carlos’s shoulders felt slightly sore from where NV01’s hands had gripped him, but the tentacles hadn’t left any marks.   
“I might get tentacle marks later. They tend to have a delay in showing up.” Carlos commented nonchalantly, brushing her off to show that he was fine. Lauren looked at the meat, still by the right side of the tank.  
“Doctor, why were you in there without the food?” She asked with a peculiar expression on her face, almost suspiciously.  
“I discovered Subject NV01 doesn’t have the appropriate teeth for a carnivorous diet, and through a trial I discovered that h- it is clearly an herbivore, and has only been eating the meat so as not to starve.” Carlos explained.  
“Really? But look at it.” She disagreed.   
“Science is based on more than looks, Doctor.” Carlos responded.   
“That’s true.” She paused. Suddenly, her eyes widened with shock. “Hold on, did you say you got a look at its teeth?”   
“Um, yes. It opened its mouth enough to reveal that it does not have sharpened teeth. In fact, they are even duller than a human’s.” Carlos revealed. Carlos had been a vegan by diet ever since he found out that, scientifically, humans were not made to eat meat if they could help it. Science had never steered Carlos wrong.   
“You’ve got guts, Científico. I’ll change the food order to, I don’t know, seaweed or something.”   
“Oh, did NV01 come from the ocean?” Carlos asked curiously. Lauren ignored his question. “Nigh… vay…” wasn’t really enough to go on to figure out where NV01 came from. All of a sudden it hit Carlos like a brick, that the two-word clue he had received about NV01’s home started with the same letters as his lab-given name. “What does NV01 stand for?”   
“Carlos, we don’t pay you to ask questions.” She answered coldly. Her eyes were like daggers. Carlos wanted to inform her that he was a scientist, which meant that they literally did pay him to ask questions and subsequently answer them, but he figured that wouldn’t do him much good.  
“Don’t give me a reason to regret saving you, Doctor.” Lauren said clearly before walking out and slamming the door. Carlos turned around, and saw NV01 collapsed on the ground, face down. His tentacles were sprawled out everywhere. He was still convulsing just slightly. Carlos felt so bad for him. He wanted to bolt back in the tank and make sure he was alright, but if Lauren came back up and saw such a thing, both of them would surely suffer for it.  
“I’ll be back later.” He promised remorsefully, voice cracking at the sight of him helplessly in so much pain.   
Carlos went down to check on John’s samples.   
“Hey, John. Do you have the results on the liquid from my cheek?” He asked. John nodded, lifting his goggles up onto his forehead.  
“Yeah, and it’s kind of strange. It’s not a poison or a venom, it’s an enzyme. It isn’t predatory, not exactly, but what’s so strange about it is that this enzyme is specifically made to break down cell walls, which, as you know, are only in plant cells. What would a carnivorous water-beast need with cell wall targeting enzymes?” John exasperated. Carlos grinned when he realized he had the exact answer to John’s questions.  
“It’s not carnivorous. It has round teeth, and rejects the meat when given a choice. It’s only been eating the meat to survive, and that enzyme just proves it.” Carlos was joyous at his success, but couldn’t get the image of NV01 seizing on the bottom of the tank out of his head.  
“Oh. That makes sense. But, Carlos, most herbivores will never eat meat, because they don’t understand that they can. Their brains just aren’t capable of seeing it as food. Are you telling me this creature has a complex enough brain that it can completely reverse its diet when there are no other options?” John looked at Carlos expectantly, and Carlos realized John actually called him by his first name. Maybe getting slashed in the face by the Subject earned him John’s respect.  
“Yes. Just by looking at it, we could assume it is fairly intelligent. It very closely resembles a human besides the tentacles, which are a characteristic of an octopus. Both are in the top most intelligent creatures ever discovered. It only makes sense that the creature would also be pretty smart.” John nodded. Carlos just couldn’t tell him how smart. Having scientific revolutions that he wasn’t going to share went against everything he had always believed, but at this point, nothing would be worth risking more harm befalling his new… ally.  
“I just wish we, or just you, could get a good observation. If that thing would just let its guard down for a few minutes, we could leave it alone for a while. If only its body reacted to tranqs.”   
“What if… what if I stayed overnight, and snuck in while the Subject was asleep? I could measure it, check its vital signs…” Carlos was rambling, terrified he would slip up and use a wrong pronoun.  
“Are you serious? Carlos, you’ve got to be kidding me. That thing up there is dangerous, and you’re acting like it’s just a big dog that’ll leave you alone when you toss it some food.” John argued.  
“It’s smarter than a dog! I think it has a brain similar to a human’s. Or perhaps an octopus’s. There’s no way to be sure. But it trusts me enough, and I trust it back.”   
“You trust it? Científico, have you lost your goddamn mind? That thing up there is not a person! It just looks like one! Science is more than looks!” Carlos was surprised by the similarity of his statement to what he said to Lauren earlier. He also knew that he might be going too far in saying that he trusted it. But he just had to convince them to let him come at night. Carlos was bursting at the possibilities that something like that could lead to.  
“I know that, but John… think about it. If every other person to enter that tank is now dead, why am I not? Why is this-” Carlos pointed to his only slightly wrecked face, “-the only thing I have to show for it? This was just because I got too close. If NV01 wanted to kill me, he- it would have by now!” Carlos exclaimed. John glared at him, hopefully not catching the “he” Carlos accidentally let slip.  
“If you’re going to stay here overnight, at least let me or Steve stay too.” John conceded after a beat.  
“I’m the only one it trusts. The results may be different if either of you are here, and there’s a higher chance of it waking up. If it even sleeps.” Carlos paused. “If it doesn’t sleep, then I’ll leave and send you a text. If it does, I’ll still let you know. Here, how about this- when I leave the tank after I collect my data, I’ll call you to let you know I’m not dead. No call, you let Kevin and Lauren know.” John sighed, but clearly was more or less okay with the plan.  
“Good luck. But I’m coming with you to watch you feed it today.” Carlos nodded, not wanted to be suspicious. Too much alone time with NV01 could send up a red flag.   
He no longer felt right calling the being upstairs “the subject” or even “NV01”. Neither of those were names, just titles given to dehumanize him. Carlos resolved to find out a name as soon as he could.   
The two men went up to feed NV01 later that day. With John there, Carlos couldn’t ask NV01 any questions. He just dropped the vegan mixture into the tank, sat there while NV01 ate, and then left. NV01 let one tentacle lay just slightly over Carlos’s outstretched foot. John gaped at them the whole time, like he had just watched Carlos put his head directly into the mouth of a tiger. From John’s perspective, Carlos realized, it seemed like something even more dangerous, even stupid. About an hour after that, everyone but Carlos went home. In that time, Carlos had explained his plan to Kevin. He figured Kevin would be more likely to give him the overtime form out of the smiling siblings, and he was right. Carlos told John he would text him before he went in, and if he didn’t call him by three hours after that, John was to assume the beast had finally taken its prize, as John joked. Carlos agreed to those terms. Even though John was kidding around, Carlos could tell he was still terrified at the idea of Carlos approaching the Subject while he slept. To be honest, Carlos wasn’t completely confident either. He watched his hands trembling the whole way up the elevator.   
He texted John while he was outside the door, still in the hallway. His panic button was in his desk downstairs. It was midnight, which meant NV01 had already had plenty of time to fall asleep. In that time, Carlos had ordered takeout, taken more notes, and organized all the information on NV01. If this was his last night on this plane of existence, at least the next guy would have a slightly better idea of what they were getting into. Carlos was alone in the huge building. He took a deep breath, and slowly, silently opened the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger!! The chapter was getting long, so I cut it.


	3. Overtime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The truth comes out, and drastic measures are taken.

When the cold draft of air hit Carlos as the door opened, he added temperatures to the list of reasons to feel sympathy for NV01. After transferring from the underwater left side to the dry right side, NV01 must have frozen all over again. It was amazing NV01 had held on for however long he had been trapped here.  
At first, he wasn’t sure what to expect. It was entirely possible that NV01 didn’t require sleep, and would just be surprised to see Carlos in the middle of the night. Hopefully, Carlos could get take the observations anyway, and then have a real conversation. Though Carlos was terrified beyond his mind, something within him told him that NV01 and he shared an understanding. Carlos knew that, as a scientist, he shouldn’t get such high hopes for any kind of experiment, but he couldn’t help it. It was exciting, and nerve wracking. Just because NV01 could speak the same language as Carlos and seemed to trust him, didn’t assure that he wouldn’t kill Carlos the next chance he got, but perhaps they both knew that NV01 may never have someone as willing to get to know him as Carlos again.  
With that in mind, Carlos gazed in to the tank. At first, he didn’t see anything. NV01 usually took up a good amount of space with the large tentacles, but Carlos had to squint to see a thin figure lying against the back wall. Carlos got closer, stepping so carefully as to not make any noise. NV01 appeared to be sleeping. Carlos turned on his phone, but silenced it. He used the light from his screen to shine a tiny bit into the tank. He gasped, and slapped his hand over his mouth. Lying with his back to Carlos, was just… a man. His legs looked like NV01’s, and his head looked like NV01’s, but his back… was bare. No giant tentacles, and no gaping holes where they should be. Just a man’s back, with clear, thin muscles and pointed shoulderblades. Carlos stared into the tank. All of a sudden he realized that the project was not testing on some monstrous creature, but a man, who for some reason, had tentacles. But not while he slept. Carlos got into the tank without waking NV01, which he was proud of. The first thing he had planned on doing when he got into the tank had been to measure and inspect the tentacles, but that was clearly off the table. He marveled at the sight before him. Carlos kneeled down by NV01’s back, casting the faint light on his body. He was just a man, and Carlos had his hand over his mouth in shock. Carlos only looked at places that NV01 had shown him before, because he did not want to invade his privacy. Whether NV01 was man or beast, he was truly beautiful. Carlos couldn’t think of anything to do but let his hand graze the top of NV01’s hair. It was rough, likely from extended time being in saltwater. It was caramel brown, and it looked to Carlos to have highlights partially from the sun, but mostly from genetics. Definitely not from the sun recently.  
His heart sank as he wondered how long it had been since NV01 had seen the sun. He instinctively stroked the light hair under his hand, and NV01 made a sound Carlos immediately labeled as adorable. He inspected what he could of the body in front of him. To his surprise, he found a tiny tattoo on the right side of his neck. It was a woman’s name that Carlos, obviously, did not recognize. Carlos wondered if that was a friend, a sister, or a mother, or even a lover. Then he wondered, again, about who NV01 said they would kill if Carlos told anyone he could talk. It could be her. Obviously Lauren and Kevin or someone above them must have a female he loves in some way or another and is threatening him with her. Carlos’s eyes welled up with tears as he thought of how sad he felt for this being, this person below him.  
He then thought again about this man likely having a name, but all Carlos knew was NV01. He wondered if NV01 even still knew his name, since he had mostly forgotten how to speak. Carlos’s hand stroking the man’s hair accidentally drifted down and touched skin, and before Carlos could react, the man was on top of him, pinning him to the rock floor, and black-ish tentacles were rising out of his back with an incredibly unsettling sound- like opening a can of processed meat- and surrounding Carlos. Carlos winced and prepared himself for the violent act he was expecting, but when nothing came, he cautiously opened one eye. The man was gazing at him in shock. There wasn’t even a hint of anger in his expression.  
“H-h-ave y-y-y-you c-come t-to h-h-hurt m-me t-t-t-too?” The man whispered, with nothing but tragedy and deflation in his tone. Carlos shook his head, at a loss for words, his heart breaking for the millionth time at how used to abuse this soul was. The man looked at Carlos’s hands, which were expertly pinned above his head, and saw them empty. The man looked over and saw that Carlos had only brought a phone and a notebook in with him. The man let go of Carlos and leaned back, using his middle tentacles to cover himself and wrapping the others around his own waist and shoulders. Carlos sat up.  
“I’m sorry for surprising you. I just wanted to know more about you. More than that, I… I want to help you.” Carlos whispered earnestly.  
“A tr-trick?” The man replied. Still no real sound came out of his mouth, like his lips knew how to make words, but his vocal cords hadn’t caught up yet.  
“No. No trick. I… this isn’t right. Even though you can’t talk very well, you have body parts I’ve never seen on a person, and you’ve killed a lot of people like me, I don’t think you deserve to be treated like a monster.” Carlos explained quietly, hoping the man would believe him.  
“I-I n-nev-never k-keel-ed anywah-wah-one l-like y-y-you.” Carlos understood what he was saying. The man had never killed someone who showed him any compassion.  
“Did all of them shock you?” The man nodded. “Who are you? Where did you come from? How did these people find you?” The man just stared at him.  
“Okay, first. Where did you come from?”  
“N-nuh-nigh-nigh-t vay-vay-va-yell.”  
“Night Vale?” Carlos pieced together. He’d never heard of such a place. “Where is that? Is it in the ocean?” The man shook his head. So he was from land.  
“It- it i-iz a sm-sma-small t-t-town.” The man was still drawing out his vowels and stuttering, but some of it had his actual voice seeping through. It was dark and melodic, thick and sweet, but still so repressed.  
“Can you tell me more? Are there others like you there?” The man nodded.  
“S-some l-li-i-ike m-me. O-or y-you. S-some n-neither.” The man looked at Carlos’s eyes. Carlos felt like the tables had been turned, and for once, he was the one being studied.  
“What about the name on your neck?” Carlos immediately regretted mentioning it, because the man turned bright red.  
“M-my sss-sister. A-Abby.” His speech was slightly improving, but barely. Carlos realized the man blushed because Carlos had been close enough to read his tattoo, not for the reason Carlos selfishly assumed.  
“Is that the person you said they’d kill if I told them you were talking?” Carlos asked, overwhelmed with emotions at this experience. The man shook his head no, and shuddered from the cold. “Do you want my lab coat?” Carlos offered.  
The man shook his head yes, and Carlos took it off and handed it to him. He used his tentacles to turn around to his back was to Carlos, then retracted his top and middle tentacles so he could pull the coat on. He turned out and sat, bottom tentacles wrapped around his waist, still covering himself.  
“Can you pull those in whenever you want?” Carlos asked, getting distracted by science and his undying fascination.  
“Y-yes. B-but they-ey d-don’t s-stay out whi-while I sl-sleep.” Carlos nodded. “They-they h-have m-my niece.” He covered his face with his hands. “I-if I d-d-do any-anything they d-don’t l-like…” His voice broke at the end, and he let out a small sob. Carlos understood what he was saying perfectly.  
“Is she here?” Carlos inched forward. He didn’t want to push too far, but he felt like his ally had become a friend.  
The man sobbed again. He kept his face covered by his hands, but pointed towards the opposite wall the the right of the door that led to the hall with a tentacle.  
“Se-cret d-door.” He choked out. Carlos couldn’t believe what he was hearing. After coming up here for weeks, he hadn’t ever noticed a secret door that led to a room with this man’s niece.  
“Is she like you? And is your sister?” Carlos asked.  
“My s-sister is l-like me. Her daughter iz d-different.” Carlos noticed his speech was clearing up just by him talking. The man had stopped sobbing.  
“Different how?”  
“She w-was born with-out legs, w-with a fish t-tail, l-like her f-father.” The man said “father” with such distaste that Carlos could tell he did not care for the guy. “H-her father left w-when h-he saw h-her. H-he didn't kn-know m-my s-sister h-had t-tentacles.” He wiped another tear. “I raised her with m-my s-sister. Th-they came to N-night Vale a-and j-just yanked h-her out of her wh-wheelchair. Th-they had g-guns, to h-her head and m-made me c-come w-with them. She’s o-only twelve.” He cried. Carlos’s heart panged. That explained why the man’s attention had been caught when Carlos said his sister was 12.  
“How long have you been here?”  
“I-I th-think three y-years.” He wiped his eyes. “I j-just want to go h-home. With m-my Janice.” Carlos realized they had both been away from their families for the same amount of time. It made him feel like shit for leaving his on purpose.  
The last of the man’s tentacles retracted and he pulled the lab coat to cover himself. Carlos couldn’t stand calling him “the man” in his head any longer.  
“What’s your name? Do you remember?”  
“I-I’m C-Cecil.” Of course such a beautiful man would have such a crisp, lovely name. Carlos diverted his attention back to the situation at hand.  
“Alright, Cecil. Could you find Night Vale if you got out of here?” Carlos asked. Cecil nodded faintly, his eyes glazing over. Carlos grew concerned.  
“Night Vale r-reveals itself t-to those who d-deserve it.” Carlos didn’t know what that meant, but he went with it. Cecil was speaking relatively clearly, and Carlos admired his pleasant voice. Carlos’s heart hurt again that Cecil had been forced into silence for that many years.  
“Is Night Vale just a town, but some people look like you and some people look different?” Cecil shook his head.  
“It’s more than that. Everyone here t-tells me Night Vale is… wrong. But it’s my home. It’s where everyone I love lives.” Cecil’s voice trailed off, perhaps the passion of talking about his hometown making his speech flow almost perfectly.  
“What did you do in Night Vale? How did you get caught up in all this?”  
“I was just a- a r-radio host. Everyone knew to k-keep their parts specific to N-night Vale hidden when visiors w-were around. They had been buying all of the bus-businesses. Some b-big company. They bought out m-my station. I was, I was a-alone in my booth. I miss my booth. It was more of a h-home to me than my apa-ap-apartment. I us-usually kept my tentacles in anyway, so my shirts would fit, but I needed to stre-tch. Th-they always knocked, but not this time. I c-couldn’t retract f-fast enough. They told me if I d-didn’t come with them out of Night Vale to be studied, th-that th-they w-would hurt, they w-would hurt Janice, but I th-thought they were bluffing. I n-never thought they meant it, but they did. Wh-what kind of person puts a ch-child through all of this?” Cecil choked back a sob. “They treat us like animals. Worse.”  
Carlos’s chest hurt from hearing it, but he knew it was nothing compared to Cecil’s pain. Suddenly, anger filled his body like it had just been injected into him. Cecil and his niece didn’t deserve any of this. Carlos knew he had no choice of what to do next.  
“I have extra clothes in my bag. They’ll be big on you, but they’ll work.” Carlos announced. He left the tank, expecting Cecil to follow, and grabbed the spare set of clothes. He turned around and saw Cecil still sitting on the rock floor. “Cecil, you can leave now. We’re the only ones here.” Cecil looked around nervously. Carlos walked back in the tank and held out his hand to Cecil. Cecil looked at it for a moment, but took it. Carlos led him out. Each step Cecil took seemed like his first, but he was simply amazing at feeling a tile floor for the first time in years.  
“I can’t believe I’m… out.” Cecil whispered. Carlos smiled weakly and handed him the clothes, turning away to give him some privacy. At Cecil’s okay, he turned back. Carlos’s flannel fit loosely on Cecil’s hunger-stricken body. The jeans hung, barely staying up on his hips. Carlos thought he was looking better already. It was finally closer to normal. Carlos was humanizing him back to the way he deserved to be. Cecil handed Carlos back the lab coat, and Carlos tossed it over his shoulder.  
“Let’s go get Janice.” Carlos held his hand out again to Cecil. He didn’t know why he did it. Cecil took it, and Carlos held Cecil’s hand with a gentle firmness. It had been a very long time since he had held a man’s hand outside of a handshake, but he forced those thoughts aside as he led Cecil to the wall where the secret door was. Carlos looked at it for a moment, and immediately saw how to open it. There was a small keypad for a finger to be scanned. Carlos figured, what the hell, and punched the thing. Cecil jumped back, startled. The wall slid open, revealing a smaller room, with the same kind of tank on the wall, except there was no water-filled side. The room had small green lights lining the ceiling. Carlos’s knuckle was bleeding from the glass, but he ignored it. There were far bigger problems at hand.  
Lying on the rock floor was a small figure. Carlos stared at Janice. She was lying face-down. Her light hair was scattered around her head, and she was also naked. Carlos felt overwhelmed with sadness for this little girl. Janice’s tail was a light green, with yellow markings, and small, pink tentacles around her waist. Much smaller than Cecil’s, only about the size of her forearms. Cecil ran to the door and shook the handle. Carlos ignored the amazing shock that he was looking at a literal mermaid. Cecil was making a lot of noise, and Carlos wondered why it did not wake Janice up. He began to worry.  
“Open it! Please,” Cecil pleaded. Carlos jogged over to him and obliged. Cecil ran in and held Janice’s limp body. “Janice! Janice, it’s Uncle C-Cecil. I’m here. Oh, I’m so s-sorry J-Janice.” Cecil sobbed, holding her head in his lap and stroking her hair. Carlos sped in and draped the lab coat over her torso. Cecil thanked him.  
“Of course.” Carlos began checking her vital signs. “She’s showing signs of severe dehydration. She must not have had access to water in a long time. Her skin is dry, even flaking in some parts.” Carlos concluded. How incredibly cruel that the let a creature so clearly meant for water dry out on a rock in a tank? Carlos wanted to burn the entire building to the ground, but he knew that it would just be a waste of time. They’d only open up somewhere else.  
“Is she going to be o-okay? I can’t l-lose her, Carlos.” Carlos jolted at the sound of his own name. Cecil had never said it before, and the way he did rung in Carlos’s head for many moments after.  
“You won’t. She needs to be mostly submerged. That should wake her up enough for her to hydrate more effectively through the mouth.” Carlos noted. That method wouldn’t work on anyone that wasn’t built like Janice. Her skin appeared incredibly absorbent. Cecil adjusted the lab coat so that Janice was wearing it like a backwards robe. He hefted her up.  
“Show me where I can take her.” Cecil begged, making the first completely fluid statement yet, without a single lapse in speech. He was clearly great under pressure. Carlos wasn’t sure why he himself wasn’t falling apart, only that the life and death urgency of the situation had to be keeping him together. Carlos nodded and led Cecil out of the room. They needed to go all the way to floor 2, so that’s where Carlos took them. Cecil was nervous about getting on the elevator, but he made sure Carlos knew that Cecil trusted him. They went into the testing lab, and Carlos pointed to where Cecil could set Janice down. Carlos turned on the shower that was used in case anyone got chemicals on their skin, and brighter color flooded back into Janice’s skin and scales. Her eyes fluttered as thick droplets poured down her young face. She started shaking with fear when she saw Carlos.  
“Janice. Janice, this is Carlos. He’s a good scientist.” Cecil ran up to her after Carlos turned off the water and held her. “He’s going to save us.” Janice eyed Carlos wearily, and squeezed Cecil’s hand.  
“U-uncle Cecil.” She whispered. “I d-didn’t tell them a-anything about us.” Carlos understood she was talking about all of the kinds of people like Janice and Cecil. Carlos instantly noticed the lashes and cuts all over Janice’s arms and neck as Janice pushed up the sleeves of the coat. It was clear she had been tortured for more information about their kind. They thought the little girl would be weak enough to crack, but they were wrong. Carlos became overwhelmed with respect for the bravery of this little girl. It made him think of his own sister, which yet again filled him with guilt for leaving her without a goodbye.  
“Oh, Janice.” Cecil sobbed into her hair. “You always were the tough one.” Carlos heard a thud from downstairs. It sounded like someone was walking around, and coming up the elevator.  
“Cecil, you need to hide.” Carlos hissed.  
“I can’t leave Janice.” Cecil protested. Carlos told him to take her and hide under a desk. Just as they shielded themselves from the view of the elevator, the doors opened, and none other than Steve came out.  
“Carlos? I thought you were dead. Why didn’t you text?” Steve exclaimed. Carlos was first in disbelief that the time he and John agreed on had really passed since he texted, before scolding himself for not texting John that he was fine.  
“Has it really been three hours?” Carlos rubbed the back of his neck anxiously, feeling himself start to sweat.  
“It’s been more than that. I offered to come see the damage. Why didn’t you text John?” Steve looked him up and down. “Where’s your coat?”  
“I, uh, I just got a little hot.” Carlos had always been bad at lying under pressure, but he couldn’t afford to fuck this up. Carlos suddenly spotted a couple inches of Janice’s tail and fin peaking out from under the desk they were hiding. Carlos tried to look away as soon as he saw it so as to not to draw attention, but Steve was a scientist too, and Carlos had been acting suspicious anyway. Steve turned to see what Carlos had glanced at.  
“What the hell is that?” He yelled.  
“Steve, it’s-” Carlos tried to explain, but Steve had already yanked the desk to the side, revealing the two souls huddled together behind it.  
“Is that… NV01? And… a mermaid? My God, where did his tentacles go?” Steve gasped, clearly absolutely terrified, looking around for some way to defend himself.  
“Steve, wait! He’s not some monster, he’s a person. With a family. And they’ve both been kept here against their will and tortured.” Carlos tried to convince Steve not to freak out. One call, and they would be dead.  
“Carlos, you’re… you’re crazy. That… that thing is not a person. It killed so many people.” Steve stepped back, and Carlos saw the wall phone behind him.  
“Steve, don’t! He’s not a thing! He has a name, he can speak! Steve, please listen to me. Strexcorp kidnapped him and tortured him.” Steve was speechless, still going for the phone.  
“S-Steve?” Cecil stuttered. Steve fell backwards with fear. “I-I’m not trying to- to scare y-you. P-please. J-Just let me go home.” Steve broke his stare from Cecil to look at Carlos.  
“I- good God, Carlos, I don’t know how you got yourself into this mess, but… I believe you. I don’t know why NV01 has taken such a liking to you-”  
“His name is Cecil.” Carlos interrupted.  
“O-okay. Cecil. But… I know we don’t exactly work for a company of angels.”  
“Because angels are definitely not real.” They heard Cecil whispering to Janice. They both ignored it.  
“I know these people are criminals. Do you understand what you’re doing? If you help them, you’re dead. Our employers, or theirs, someone will find you. There’s no where you could go.” Steve analyzed quietly.  
“I know, I’m- I’m going with them.” Carlos sputtered without thinking about it. Cecil’s eyes widened at him.  
“I don’t need to know where. You have an hour to get as far out of here as possible. I’m going home and telling Kevin that… that NV01, say, Cecil killed you, and somehow escaped. They’ll know it’s a lie, so I’ll tell him that’s just what it looks like. I’ll call in thirty minutes.” Steve finished. Carlos stared at him and whispered, thank you. “Go!” Steve spat. Carlos took the hint and nodded to Cecil, who scooped up a thoroughly petrified Janice.  
“Cecil, we’re going to my car, and we’re going to my place. Then we’re out of here.” Cecil nodded and followed Carlos quickly downstairs. Cecil sat in the back seat with Janice, who was still dazed. As Carlos was pulling out of the parking lot, he made eye contact with Steve. Steve nodded at him, a final goodbye. Carlos pulled out of the parking lot and sped off as quickly as he could towards his apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! When I first posted this chapter, the story only had 50 hits! It's grown so much. I love all of you :)


	4. Going, Going, Gone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carlos doesn't know what to think, just that he has to keep going.

Carlos didn’t waste any time. He knew the criminals that had imprisoned Cecil and Janice were going to send someone to Carlos’s apartment as soon as Steve made the call. Carlos threw all the clothes he could into a bag, took all of his savings out of his closet (gracias a Dios Carlos had never trusted banks). He didn’t even bother to bring toiletries, because he figured Night Vale would have that. He packed up some of his favorite clothes and the picture of him with his hermana y madre, and tried not to think about how he would never be able to see them again. He was saving one family at the cost of his own. The difference was, his mother and sister could survive never seeing him again, but Cecil and Janice eventually would have died there without Carlos. Carlos hoped the good karma could make up for all the other terrible jobs he did the last few years.  
He ran back into the car, also bringing along a blanket and real t-shirt for Janice. She pulled on the shirt and snuggled up in the blanket. By about five minutes of driving, she was asleep. Neither of them blamed her. Cecil looked like he wanted to go to sleep too, but Carlos needed him to stay awake and give directions. Cecil told Carlos where to go, and further explained Night Vale to him. Every few moments he would say something to Carlos that was just so… strange. But Carlos knew he was in too deep to back out. He also figured that a lot of what Cecil was saying was probably exaggerated unintentionally because of the torture and the time that had passed since he had been home.  
A lot of what Cecil was saying was actually kind of cute. He told some happy stories of life with Janice and others. He had a good friend named Josie back in Night Vale who he said he couldn’t wait for Carlos to meet. The whole thing became slightly domestic as they got closer. Carlos almost felt like he was with a lover, going to his hometown to meet all his old friends. Cecil didn’t mention parents, but people their age usually didn’t unless things were good, so Carlos didn’t ask.   
“I wonder if Old Woman Josie still has her not-angel friends staying with her.” Cecil mumbled to himself in passing.  
“Did you say angels?” Carlos quipped curiously.   
“Yes, and no. I said not-angel, because angels definitely do not exist.” Cecil defended, looking back to see if Janice was still asleep.  
“If angels don’t exist, why don’t you just call them people?”   
“Oh, Carlos. It will take you some time to adjust to Night Vale. Old Woman Josie’s friends are all ten feet tall and have large, feathery wings. Also, they are all named Erika and have no determinable gender.”   
“Hm.” Carlos pondered. The scientist in him was very thrilled to see Night Vale. The normal person who had just thrown away any chance of going back to the life he once knew was terrified. “What about metaphorical angels? Like, if some miracle happens in your life, wouldn’t make sense to attribute it to something like angels?” Cecil looked like he was thinking very hard about this.  
“I suppose…” He looked at Carlos warily. “That would make you my angel, sweet Carlos.”   
Carlos blushed. Cecil had been subtly saying things like “sweet Carlos” more and more as they talked. He was treating Carlos like they had known each other for years. It made Carlos’s chest feel like it was full of marshmallows, but it also ached.   
“But seriously, Carlos, you’re going to need to watch it with the angel talk when we get over the town line. If you set of the Angel Acknowledgement Sirens more than once or twice without taking it back, you could get sent to reeducation.” Cecil shuddered as he said it. Carlos wondered if the place they were going was so much better than what they were running from. Janice stirred in the backseat.  
“Cecil?” She called quietly. Cecil turned around to make eye contact with her.  
“Yes?”   
“What if they find us again?” Her voice dropped to an impressively quiet volume. Even after everything, Carlos had been expecting some variation of “are we there yet?”. He realized he would need to change his attitude. Janice was clearly wise beyond her years, and he got the feeling she had always been that way.  
“That’s not going to happen.” Cecil stated firmly and full of emotion. Carlos saw Janice nod in the rearview mirror. Carlos hoped Cecil was right.  
“Are there a lot of people with fish-like tails in Night Vale?” Carlos pondered aloud.  
“No.” Cecil began. “Night Vale is a desert town. The man who contributed to Janice’s biological production was visiting from somewhere near an ocean. He and Janice’s mother had one of those things where he claimed to love her no matter what, until the surprise baby with unexpected appendages came along and revealed that he never really loved anybody. You know, the classic story. Of course, Janice has heard all of this before.” Cecil grumbled. Carlos had already forgotten about how, just moments ago, Cecil could barely even for real words.   
“Is it hard for you to live in a desert?” Carlos asked Janice. He had to catch himself before he asked Cecil, because he suspected Janice wouldn’t like being spoken through as if she weren’t even there.   
“Depends on what you mean by hard. I have to stay hydrated more than anyone else. Everybody tries to look at me like they feel sorry for me, but I can do more in a wheelchair with my body than they can do with theirs.” Carlos nodded. There was a comfortable silence that settled on them until Janice decided to break it.  
“Are you going to stay in Night Vale?” She asked Carlos. Carlos hesitated. He didn’t really have a choice, but moving to a new town like this was… insane.  
“I don’t know, Janice.” He finally said.  
“Where else would you go?” Cecil broke in.  
“I don’t know. I wish I could tell my madre and hermana goodbye. They’ll never know what happened to me. If I didn’t stay in Night Vale, I’d definitely need to go out of the country. Maybe I could make a friend, have them go find my family…” Carlos drifted off. “I don’t know.”  
“If you decide to stay… I have a spare bedroom. Janice lives with her mother, obviously. I’d love to have you room with me for as long as you wanted. Night Vale hasn’t had a good scientist come around in years, so there’d be plenty of work to find.”  
“Oh, Cecil, I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you. I’m sure I could figure something out.” With the mood they had set, going back to Cecil’s hometown like lovers, calling Carlos cute pet names and complimenting him… Carlos felt like moving in with him was just… too much. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy Cecil’s company, but it was just… Carlos, for some reason, couldn’t seem to have a complete thought if Cecil was involved.   
“It wouldn’t be an inconvenience at all, dear Carlos. The faceless old woman who secretly lives in my home may bother you at first, but she has good judge of character. Also, she’d bother you wherever you lived in Night Vale, so it might as well be at my apartment.” Carlos blinked twice and looked back at Janice. She had no reaction to the odd thing about the faceless old woman, but was looking at Carlos expectantly. Somehow, Carlos couldn’t say no to that face.  
“I suppose that settles it.” He held back a smile. Cecil made no such effort.   
“Yay! Oh, Carlos, we’re going to be roommates! We can watch movies, and brush each other’s hair, and share bloodstone circles-”  
“Wait, did you say ‘brush each other’s hair’?” Carlos sputtered.  
“Um, yes. S-sorry if that was a bit forward. You just have, um, r-really, uh, really nice hair. It’s sort of, uhm… s-sort of perfect, actually.” Cecil stuttered. Carlos didn’t understand why his speech patterns from earlier were coming back. He blushed at the compliment.  
“Are we getting close?” Carlos changed the subject. Cecil peered out all the windows.  
“I… think so.” He paused and avoided Carlos’s eyes.  
“Cecil, you think so? Are we lost?” Carlos exasperated. Cecil looked like he was about to speak, but closed his mouth. Carlos groaned. He drove for a minute, and found a small motel that looked like the kind of place you would go for a small family getaway. It was comforting. He pulled in to the lot and parked.  
“What are we doing?” Cecil asked worriedly.   
“I’m about to fall asleep at the wheel, and I know you wouldn’t be any better. We’re stopping here for the night.” Carlos sighed.  
“What about me? I kind of have a tail, and no wheelchair.” Janice put her hands up, irritated at being forgotten.  
“I know, I know. We’ll just have to wrap you up in a blanket and Cecil can carry you in. Just… pretend to be asleep, and we can act like he has to carry you because you fell asleep in the car.” They nodded, but Janice didn’t look happy about it. Though, Carlos decided, being irritated at having to depend on her uncle was far better than being filled with post-traumatic stress, which she showed no signs of. Carlos found it somewhat miraculous that she and Cecil seemed so… fine. It was like they were just a family on vacation, and not on the run from an evil corporation that would do anything to keep this under wraps.  
They all went in the motel. It was five am, and the sun was starting to rise. Carlos decided he would be the one to go to the front desk.  
“Hi, can we get a room?” He asked the guy at the desk. The guy was young, with slicked back hair and one earring.   
“The only rooms we have are the ones with two queen beds.” He informed Carlos. Carlos knew what he was implying, and squinted at him.  
“Really? What’s the occasion?” Carlos responded sarcastically.  
“Hey, man, it’s not a big place.” The guy replied defensively. Carlos may have overreacted.   
“Alright, you’re right. That’ll be fine.” The guy handed him a key after Carlos paid. He paid with the last of his cash. He didn’t want any chance of the company finding him before he had even really gotten away. The three of them got on the elevator and went up to their floor. The second they got in, Cecil set Janice down on one of the beds.  
“I’ll take the couch.” Cecil announced casually.  
“Are you kidding me, Cecil? You haven’t slept on a bed in years. I’m taking the couch.” Carlos disagreed. Cecil looked like he was about to protest, but closed his mouth and sat down on the other bed. Carlos opened his suitcase to take out some pajamas, and offered Cecil a pair of pj pants as well, which he had brought specifically for Cecil. They were purple checkered, and warm. Cecil changed in the bathroom, and Carlos went in after him. When he came out, Cecil was tucking Janice into bed. He whispered something to her before giving her a small kiss on the forehead. Carlos’s heart melted at the act of family affection. He wondered if he would ever feel at home again as he drifted off into a dream-filled sleep.  
Carlos dreamed deeply that night. He dreamed that he was a dolphin, swimming freely in the ocean, but without purpose. He was alone. Dream Carlos the Dolphin found a black-ish octopus with glints of purple and blue on the girths of the tentacles. All of a sudden, Carlos the Dolphin's life had renewed meaning. Even though it didn’t make sense, he felt like he belonged with this completely different creature. They were so different, but they felt at home together. It was like the universe had been waiting, counting down the seconds until they finally realized what they were to each other.   
Carlos instantly forgot his dream when he woke up. It was just at the cusp of his memories, but it faded as he desperately tried to cling on to it. He checked the time on his phone and saw they had all slept only about six hours. He got up as silently as he could and washed his face before putting on real clothes. When he left the bathroom, Cecil was playing with Janice. He had two tentacles out, the lowest ones, and was holding her by her waist and spinning her around while holding her hands with his. Carlos chuckled along with them. They had a good, much needed laugh. Carlos tried to absorb the feeling of family while he knew it would still be there. Everything would change once they got to Night Vale, and he just wasn’t ready.  
“If we want to catch the free breakfast, we should go downstairs now. We don’t have to check out for three more hours, but we should probably leave as soon as we can.” Carlos informed them when they all settled down. Cecil and Janice nodded and got ready to leave. They decided it was too risky to bring Janice down there, and she said she wanted some alone time. The men agreed to bring her back a plate after they ate.   
Cecil and Carlos walked out to the eating area. It was completely empty other than the few staff members. Carlos again doubted the legitimacy of the desk guy’s statement about them only having rooms with two queen beds. Cecil stared at all the food, not sure what to eat. He smelled the bacon, and nearly gagged. He ended up grabbing a lot of fruit. Cecil wouldn’t take his nervous eyes off Carlos’s piece of toast until it was completely gone, which Carlos did not understand. They sat down at a small table. It was quaint. The atmosphere of the motel was serene. It was the kind of motel that everybody has been to at least once in their life. Carlos and Cecil both scarfed down their food. Cecil ate a record amount of apples. Carlos liked watching Cecil eat. It was intriguing. Cecil also picked out a similar plate to bring to Janice. Cecil gave an abrupt “NO” when Carlos offered a whole-wheat bagel, and Carlos put his hands up in defense. Cecil apologized for being rude and they went back up. Carlos assumed it was a “Night Vale thing”, which is what he was calling anything about Cecil’s hometown that was unfamiliar to Carlos.  
When they got into the room, Janice was lying on the floor. Carlos, at first, thought she had fallen off the bed, but grinned subtly when he saw that she was doing pushups. Carlos had noticed when he first saw Janice that she had thick muscles, and now he could see why. What she didn’t have in legs was made up for in arms. Cecil held out a hand and stretched two tentacles out to help her. Everytime he outstretched them, it caught Carlos by surprise. The fact that is was so normal to the two of them was so surreal for Carlos. Their norm was Cecil’s aquatic limbs being just as functional as his arms, if not more. He set Janice on the bed and handed her the plate. She ate similarly to Cecil. Carlos wondered what they had been feeding her in the lab, but he didn’t want to ruin the happy mood they had set or disturb the peace by asking. Carlos realized that he had curbed his our scientific curiosity. He had no interest in ever talking about what happened in that lab ever again. After she ate, Carlos packed up his bag. They chatted a little more, and Cecil said more weirdness about Night Vale. Carlos mostly ignored it, and decided to cross that bridge when he came to it. They soon after decided it was time to leave. Cecil wrapped up Janice the same way they had before. She still wasn’t happy about it. Cecil took Janice to the car as Carlos checked them out. When they were all packed up in the car, Cecil had an epiphany.  
“Oh, Carlos! I know exactly where we are!” He declared.  
“Why now?”   
“I don’t know. But keep going the way we were going, and then turn right. That should do it.” Cecil nodded intensely. Carlos started driving. Time started to feel like it was slowing down, which didn’t make any sense considering the sky was actually getting darker, when Carlos could have sworn they had left the motel at twelve pm. It was certainly possible that he had just been in a highway hypnosis daze for several hours, he supposed.   
“Look!” Cecil shouted, pointing at an indigo sign that read, “Welcome to Night Vale” in faded white letters with “help” spray painted across the bottom. Carlos wondered again what they were getting in to. If someone as… lovely as Cecil called this place home, how bad could it possibly be?  
They drove past the sign. Carlos didn’t know what he was expecting to happen, but nothing did. The reality of Night Vale being no safer than any other town within a few hours of the people that were certainly tracking him by now set in. Cecil had to be messing with him about all of that other stuff. It seemed unrealistic that Cecil would prank him after everything he had been through, but certainly it was less far fetched than any of the things Cecil had told him in the last couple of hours? Carlos felt like he was walking into a trap. What if Strexcorp’s people were already in Night Vale, knowing Cecil and Janice would come back home? The idea that Cecil had expressed before as fact, that Night Vale only revealed itself to those who were worthy, sounded ridiculous. That was something out of a television show, or some kind of cliche podcast. Even if Cecil did believe that, how would Strexcorp have found Night Vale originally? Nothing was making sense to Carlos, and he found that all too familiar pain in his chest that meant he was about to have a panic attack. Pain wasn’t the right word, it was more of a weight, like someone sitting right on top of his heart. His throat closed up with fear, and his hands began shuddering. He took one hand off the wheel and scratched the top of his hand. Clawing at the skin on top of his hand until it bled was his release when he was panicking. He thought about the danger he was putting Cecil and Janice in by having an attack while driving, which made him panic more. He tried his best to pull over to the side of the road, but it was a bumpy thrust to the side that almost flipped the car. He heard a faint, “Carlos? Are you okay?” but it sounded a million miles away. He desperately clawed at the seatbelt to unfasten it, then opened the door and stumbled out in an effort to get some fresh air. He heard a car door shut that wasn’t the one he came out of. He tried to steady his breath, but the corner of his vision were going dark. He couldn’t see or breathe. Suddenly he felt incredibly dizzy. He tried to lower himself down on the ground to center his offset balance, but he collapsed against the car and felt his head knock the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reaaaadingggggggg! Wow, it's much harder to do something cute in the notes every time when I'm filling them all out in rapid succession. Ha! Love you all. Seriously. I love you.


	5. It Can't Be True... Right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carlos has some shocking revelations.

Carlos woke up in a hospital. It was not the first time in his life this had happened, but it was startling nonetheless. He only remembered fragments of what had happened before he passed out. He couldn’t remember what knocked him out, the panic attack or the car door. He didn’t really care.  
He looked around the room and saw Cecil, passed out in an arm chair. Seeing someone passed out in a chair next to your hospital bed is never as comforting as you would think, because it means you’ve been there long enough for someone to fall asleep waiting for you to wake up.  
“Cecil.” Carlos hoarsely whispered. It wasn’t intended to be a whisper, but Carlos found he hadn’t had much control over anything lately.  
“Carlos!” Cecil jumped awake. Carlos was shocked Cecil had heard him.  
“Cecil, what happened?” Carlos asked, trying to fill in the gaps.  
“Well, you started freaking out in the car, so you pulled over to the side of the road and got out. You d-didn’t r-respond to me at all, l-like I- I wasn’t even th-there.” Cecil explained, starting to stutter. “You started to tip over, and then you just collapsed in a heap on the ground. I put you back in the car and brought you here. It was a dashing scene, me carrying you in to the hospital with Janice walking on her hands behind me. Ev-everyone st-st-started going w-w-wild when they saw Janice and I, but- but I told th-them it could w-w-wait and deman-demand-ded you be treated.”  
“Why are you stuttering?” Carlos asked, too drowsy to remember to be polite.  
“Oh, uh… I g-guess when I g-get nerv-vous I kind- kind of revert b-back to b-bad sp-speech.” He shuffled.  
“How long ago did you bring me here?” Carlos asked him.  
“Only a couple of hours. It’s nearly dusk.” Carlos was confused by both Cecil using “dusk” as a determination of time and that Carlos thought he remembered it being dusk before he passed out. Surely enough, out the window the sun was setting. It was a glorious sight, all the purples and pinks and oranges. It calmed Carlos. He looked down at his hand and saw that he had scratched a nice mark into his hand. He had broken the skin. It was a bad habit. He ran his other thumb over it, and Cecil approached him. Cecil held the hand to inspect little wound. Carlos held back the blood from his cheeks when he realized Cecil was holding his hand.  
“What’s this? Did the car catch you on your way down?” Cecil wondered caringly. Yet again, Carlos felt like Cecil was a concerned lover. He winced.  
“No, I did it. With my nails.” He held up his other hand to show his nails. “It’s a nervous tick.” Mentioning nerves reminded him that he had been slightly nervous of Cecil last he was awake. Carlos pulled his hand away.  
“That’s more than a nervous tick. That’s…” Carlos wasn’t listening to Cecil. Cecil could tell.  
“What is it?” Cecil asked. Carlos ignored him and looked away. “Carlos?”  
“Nothing, Cecil.”  
“N-nothing?” Cecil frowned. It almost broke Carlos’s heart the way he said it.  
“All that stuff you were telling me about Night Vale wasn’t funny, okay? After seeing everything I saw back at Strexcorp, and of you, I guess I was willing to believe in crazy shit, but you need to drop it. You can go ahead and laugh at me for believing everything you told me about Night Vale, but I don’t anymore. I’m just going to check myself out of here and go.” Carlos spilled. Cecil looked hurt.  
“Crazy shit?” He echoed. “C-Carlos, I-I-”  
“Save it. I helped you and Janice get home. I’m not going to be fucked with anymore. I don’t believe you’re the monster that Strexcorp wanted me to believe you were, but it takes a sick kind of person to say all that stuff to somebody who saved your life.” Cecil just looked at Carlos with an expression of confusion and heartbreak. Carlos could see Cecil getting upset. Carlos thought for a second Cecil was going to lose it on him and get angry, and he inspected black-ish tentacles to come out and hover above him, but instead Cecil mumbled something like “I’ll leave you alone then” and bolted out of the room with misty eyes. Carlos didn’t understand why, but his eyes misted some too. It suddenly started to rain outside, covering the last bit of sunlight leaking out. It was like the universe was crying, Carlos thought. It was a silly thought to have, and he hated having it. But that was the thing about thoughts, you couldn’t not have them. Carlos threw his head back on the pillow and smacked himself on the face. Just then, an older woman with a long grey braid walked in with a pep in her step unusual for a woman her age.  
“You’re the science boy?” She said. Her voice was coarse and drawn.  
“Yes. Carlos.” He answered. She pranced up and kissed him on the cheek, which left him too confused to react.  
“That’s for saving Cecil.” Then she slapped him straight across the other cheek. “That’s for making him cry.”  
“Who are you?” Carlos yelled in anger of being smacked.  
“Josie! Old Woman Josie!” She said like he should have known, which was ridiculous.  
“You’re real?” Carlos exclaimed.  
“Listen, youngin’.” She poked him in the chest every other syllable. “The difference between real and unreal is whether or not you believe it. You should know that being a scientist. Every scientific rule is real until someone proves it wrong, right?”  
“...yes?” He answered, touching his cheek. It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t feel great, either.  
“Right. If you stick around, you’re going to see things you never would believe otherwise. You’ve probably already noticed how time is sporadic. That’s just scratching the surface. I don’t even have to know exactly what my lovely Cecil said to you to know that anything he said about this town is real. Why is any of it so hard to believe? The man has tentacles, for God’s sake! His niece is a tentacled mermaid!” She yelled. Carlos turned away from her loud voice.  
“You’re right.” He said quietly.  
“Now listen here- hold on, I’m right?” She stopped.  
“Yes, Josie. You’re right. I panicked. It was too much too fast and I-” Carlos sighed. “I just threw my entire life away to save some mysterious man I barely knew. Cecil is- well, Cecil is wonderful, I think. From what I’ve seen.”  
“He is. And that’s Old Woman Josie to you.” Josie smiled.  
“Are- are you sure?”  
“Why wouldn’t I be?”  
“I, uh- Nevermind.” Carlos sighed and smacked himself on the forehead. “I feel terrible. I basically just told Cecil to fuck off, but that’s not- I don’t- I- I…”  
“I know, I know. Lord, you act like you’re the first dashingly handsome scientist to waltz in here and get the hots for the town’s most beloved celebrity.” Josie rolled her eyes.  
“Hold on, the hots? Dashingly handsome? Not the first-” Carlos attempted, but Josie silenced him with her hand.  
“You can sign yourself out of the hospital whenever you’re ready. Here’s Cecil’s address. He’ll be home. The Erikas are making sure of it.” She handed him a piece of paper with Cecil’s address.  
“The angels?” A siren went off in the distance, and Carlos remember Cecil’s mention of the sirens. “I mean, the definitely not angels.” Carlos corrected. The siren stopped. Carlos made a bewildered expression and put his hands up in confusion.  
“You’re going to get along here just fine.” Josie winked before bobbing out, her braid whipping over her shoulder.  
Carlos checked himself out after the nurses cleared him and asked around to find out where Cecil’s place was. The paper had the address, but no directions. It didn’t take too terribly long, especially because the ten feet tall figures with long dark wings were hovering outside the building. They granted Carlos access and he walked up the stairs, stomach fizzling. He was nervous, but not in the shaky, panicking way. In the frazzled, brushing through his hair with his fingers way. He remembered that Cecil liked his hair, and he smiled to himself. Carlos found Cecil’s apartment, on the top floor, and knocked, wiping the sweat off of his hands on his jeans.  
Cecil answered the door, looking… worn. Carlos wasn’t afraid to admit to himself that it was… captivating. Cecil’s light, coarse hair was tossed up in places it usually wasn’t. His dark eyes showed more color than usual as well, the blues and purples dancing and melting into the inflated black pupils, like two little galaxies. He wasn’t wearing Carlos’s jeans anymore, instead a pair of black leggings that Carlos thought were dazzlingly androgynous. Cecil had on a loose grey t-shirt under none other than Carlos’s red flannel. Carlos’s heart whimpered as he thought about Cecil feeling torn up over what Carlos had said and putting Carlos’s flannel back on over his own shirt for comfort. Cecil rubbed his forearm nervously and darted his eyes away.  
“D-did you c-c-come for your, uh, your c-clothes? Here, I’ll give th-this back-” Cecil started, trying to avoid Carlos’s eyes, but failing.  
“Keep it. It, uh- it looks good on you.” Cecil and Carlos’s cheeks both turned pinker. There was a pregnant pause. “Cecil, I… I… is that spare room still open?” He squeaked out. Cecil looked up and stopped rubbing his arm. He locked eyes with Carlos and saw the apologetic look in Carlos’s face. He leaped forward and snatched Carlos up in a hug so warm and so tight that Carlos felt every stress and hesitation melt off his body like snow in the summer. “I’m sorry, Cecil. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. No excuses.”  
“No, you shouldn’t have, but I forgive you. Oh, my dear Carlos, I forgive you.” Carlos bubbled with joy at the physical affection. He felt pathetic once he realized it, but it had been so long since he had been hugged, and he needed it.  
“Cecil, you’re… really something.” Carlos whispered into Cecil’s shoulder, not entirely keeping his voice even.  
“Are you sure you believe it all? Are you sure you want to be here, where things don’t make the kind of sense you’re used to? And… with me?” Cecil mumbled the last bit. Carlos broke the hug, and held Cecil at arm’s length so he could look in his eyes.  
“Cecil… I was thinking, and I know what I said, but… Sometimes things seem so strange, or malevolent, and then you find that, underneath, it was something else altogether. Something pure, and innocent. Do you know what I mean?”  
“Yes. I do know.” The two of them looked at each other and smiled. “Do you want to come in? Or come home, I should say?” Cecil offered.  
“I’d love to.” Carlos grinned back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter is short. I realized that this was a good place to end the first "part", because all the problems are mostly resolved... except not really. my boys are happy, so it's a good place to end it. go on my page for part 2 [and part 3 if i ever freaking write it!!]  
> Also, i love josie in this. I wrote this before the retta episode, but i think it still works.


End file.
